Portobello Voices

Portobello Market has been going since 1860. It boasts the largest antiques street market in the world, is a source of inspiration for fashion designers, song writers and film directors, receives over a million visitors a year… and is at risk. In Portobello Voices, Blanche Girouard introduces us to the intoxicating mix of characters that make the market buzz – from the antique dealer to rubbish collector, sausage seller to fur coat vendor, Afghan battery seller to public school entrepreneur. Listening to their stories, learn how to spot a fake, store a fur and make a tin pan; find out what lies behind an obsession with collecting, a passion for buttons and the gusset in boxer shorts and hear how experiences of loss, abandonment and estrangement lead to a life as a market trader. Read the book, rediscover the market and become part of the solution to preserving the wonder that is Portobello.